A programmer sold his iPad abroad; a reporter auctioned his mom's iPad on eBay; and a media consultant ceremoniously reboxed his iPad. The Twitterati were saying goodbye to their not-so-magical Apple slates — or watching people who did.

Like anyone else who works at Twitter, Alex Payne surely knows from false accusations of uselessness. But he's boxing up his iPad, too, and selling it for $85 more than he paid — minus shipping to Germany.

History professor Caleb McDaniel was tempted to ditch his iPad before he even bought it. We give his Apple 'Genius' a D for this feeble attempt to situate the device in the context of preceding systematized human communication platforms.